How We Show Up | Mia Birdsong

Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community

272 pages | Hachette Go

A provocative, essential guide to cultivating community and solidarity, from an activist, community organizer, and thought leader whose viral TED talk has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.

From Occupy to Black Lives Matter to the various marches and protests, we have had some powerful moments over the last decade that have galvanized and created new, but brief, feelings of community. Many of us, however, haven't figured out how to spark that feeling on our own, or how to build on or sustain those moments. We are longing for a kind of sugar-borrowing and stoop-sitting closeness we imagine existed in the 50s.

In How We Show Up, community visionary Mia Birdsong delivers a compelling, timely understanding of what true, authentic family and community can look like -- outside of the 2-parent, 2.5 kids norm we all have in our heads. Today we have more single parents, couples who raise children outside of marriage, and more people growing older alone. Tackling topics like creating safe spaces, creativity in community, raising children in community, and more, How We Show Up is the antidote to the social fractures we face in our nation today. By sharing stories and actionable advice, and taking cues from marginalized communities -- people of color, women, the LGBTQ movement -- Mia Birdsong offers us the blueprint we need to build true community wherever we are.